Church Planting Movements are fundamentally disciple-making movements. Discipleship here is defined as growing in Christlikeness over time. While discipleship begins immediately at conversion, and sometimes even before conversion, it continues for a lifetime: “Beloved, now we are the children of God, and it doth not yet appear what shall be, but we know that when Christ shall appear we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).

How it is done

The process of growing in Christlikeness does not occur in the same way in every Church Planting Movement, though some commonalities exist.

Never do anything by yourself; always bring a brother along…

In Church Planting Movements, discipleship tends to be much more life on life rather than classroom oriented. The 2 Timothy 2:2 principle is widely recited and practiced: “What you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.”

Editor – Following up on the Billy Graham Association’s My Hope India with its thousands of respondents was a daunting task. Curtis Sergeant played a key role in developing discipleship material that would guide these new believers from across the subcontinent to form into small groups that would progress through discipleship toward the formation of new home-based churches. Curtis’ introduction to the program follows below. If you’d like to download the entire 113-page study guide, you can find it here.

Welcome to this series of small group studies! Through this training you will learn of God’s purposes, His destiny for your own life and the wonderful plans He has for your friends and your family. God has chosen to live His life through you. Just as He has transformed your life as a follower of Jesus, He will enable you to lead others to experience His salvation, too.

One way to look at this training is that it is a “crash course” on how to live as a Christian and follower of Jesus.

As you follow the Lord and celebrate His goodness with others, God will place you in a spiritual movement. This spiritual movement ignites when God’s Spirit works to help a small group of believers begin new small, healthy, and reproducing groups that quickly spread out to plant other small, healthy, reproducing groups that quickly spread out to plant other small, healthy, reproducing groups and so on until Jesus returns. Each of these groups can be called a church. This process continues and multiplies at such a rapid rate that an entire communities of people have the chance to hear the good news of Jesus and His invitation for eternal life in a very short period of time.